Orkney Islands - Paranormal Database Records

Nuckelavee

Location: All over isles - General areaType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: A hybrid, sea living creature, the Nuckelavee was described as having the features of both a mighty horse and its rider. The rider was legless and appeared to grow straight out of the horse's back. Its head was ten times the size of a normal human head, and possessed a very wide mouth that jutted out like a pig's snout and a single red eye that blazed with flame. It was both hairless and skinless. Nuckelavee's breath was toxic and it was responsible for the ‘Mortasheen', a fatal disease of cattle.

Good Looking Woman

Location: Birsay - Rocks along coastType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: Nineteenth centuryFurther Comments: A wife and husband witnessed a mermaid sitting on the rocks, described as 'good looking' by the wife. The couple tried to capture the creature, but it swam away.

Walking Stone

Location: Birsay - Standing Stone in the areaType: LegendDate / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)Further Comments: At the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay, this stone would walk down to Birsay loch and would briefly dip its head into the water before moving back to its original location. Anyone foolish enough to try to observe the stone at this time would be found dead the following morning, laying by the base of the stone.

Mermaids

Location: Deerness - Off coastType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: Late nineteenth centuryFurther Comments: These women of the water were seen dozens of times during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. One was said to have been shot, but the body was not recovered.

Vanishing Twitchers

Location: Eynhallow - Exact location unknownType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: 14 July 1990Further Comments: Two birdwatchers that vanished without trace on the island after arriving with 86 other people were thought by locals to have been taken by merfolk. An extensive search by the coastguard could find no trace of the missing people.

Bleeding Ears

Location: Eynhallow - General areaType: LegendDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: Another local legend says that the ears of corn which grow here bleed if cut after dusk.

White Horse of Clumly

Location: Hestwall - Clumly FarmType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nightsFurther Comments: Both horse and rider were killed in an accident as they galloped back home, the rider having just disposed of a body. Now the pair only appear when the environment is right.

Scapasaurus

Location: Holm - DeepdaleType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: December 1941Further Comments: The rotting corpse of a basking shark that washed up on the beach was mistaken as a Scapasaurus or sea monster, killed by depth charges.

Soft Landing

Location: Hoy - Scapa FlowType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: Attack in 1850s, diver sighting unknownFurther Comments: A young lad sitting on the rocks claimed he was attacked by a sea monster with a horse's mane - it tried (unsuccessfully) to clamp its teeth around his legs. Many years later, a diver reported descending to investigate a sunken German ship, only to realise he was standing on the back of a large sea monster that had made its home in the wreak.

Disappearing Collie

Location: Hoy - Former lodge of Melsetter HouseType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 1970Further Comments: This phantom dog slowly disappeared as it approached the witness down a corridor in their holiday home.

Angry Little Men

Location: Hoy - Cliff top at TornessType: FairyDate / Time: 1940sFurther Comments: Seen by a witness throwing themselves off the cliff edge in a mad dance, the witness said that these small men looked 'primitive', with long dark hair.

Water Horse

Location: Hoy - Runsigill Hill, RadwickType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: The water horse that lived on the hill would attack people travelling along the road to Longhope.

Water Horse

Location: Hoy - Pegal BurnType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: This creature would attack anyone using the bridge over the burn at night.

Dead Creature

Location: Isle of Hunda - Hope of HundaType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: February 1942Further Comments: The remains of a creature some 8.5 metres long were originally named as being that of a Scapasaurus, although later revealed to be a carcass of a basking shark.

Island Covered in Buildings

Location: Isle of Sanday - In the sky off coast of the islandType: Environmental ManifestationDate / Time: 1840, 1857Further Comments: This island, covered in fantastic white buildings, has appeared twice in the sky just off the coast. On one instance it remained viable for most of the day. Some people believe it to be the Fairy Isle, while others say it was a mirage of a part of Norway.

Hybrid

Location: Isle of Sanday - Exact area not knownType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: Nineteenth centuryFurther Comments: Folklorist Walter Traill Dennison recorded in 1893 that there were decedents of a union between a male selkie and a woman living on the island - you could tell who they were because they had webbed hands and feet.

Tailed Sphere

Location: Kirkwall - Northwest of KirkwallType: UFODate / Time: 25 January 1985Further Comments: The Kirkwall coastguard reported a very bright spherical object with a tail, moving north west to the south east. The object then split in two. The Aberdeen coastguard reported seeing the same or similar two objects a little later on.

Not a Seal

Location: Kirkwall - Inganess BayType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: 1904 / 1905Further Comments: Two children out picking whelks were shocked when they encountered a mystery sea creature at the water's edge. They described it as being black in colour and far bigger then a seal.

Hogboy

Location: Maeshowe - Area around the cairnType: OtherDate / Time: Late nineteenth centuryFurther Comments: Hogboy was the name of a hogboon, a dark and moody family spirit which lived in the cairns and became upset if milk was not offered to them after a birth or marriage in a family. This particular hogboon was blamed for several deaths of people and animal on a nearby farm, after the farmer ploughed up a burial mound.

Whale like Creature

Location: North of Island - SeaType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: 1537Further Comments: Fishermen reported a whale with characteristics of a boar in the sea in this area.

Selkie

Location: North Ronaldsay - Exact location not knownType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: The Goodman of Wastness, a farmer by trade, stole a selkie's seal skin and hid it, forcing the woman to become his wife. After many years of marriage and a house full of children the selkie found her seal skin and ran off back to the sea, never to be seen again.

Red Water

Location: Papa Westray - St Tredwell's LochType: OtherDate / Time: Prior to royal eventFurther Comments: The waters of the loch are said to turn red just prior to news that will greatly affect the royal family.

Great Auk

Location: Papa Westray - General areaType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: 1986Further Comments: Reports of an extinct Great Auk being spotted alive on a beach 142 years after the last confirmed sighting turned out to be nothing more than a hoax.

Dog Faced Beast

Location: Pentland Firth - Waters ofType: CryptozoologyDate / Time: 1919 / 1920sFurther Comments: The body of water was home to a sea creature with a long thick neck and a small head similar to that of a dog. It swam under one witness's boat.

Swelkie

Location: Pentland Firth - Swelkie PointType: LegendDate / Time: Story date unknown - possibly Viking?Further Comments: The whirlpool that forms here is thought to be created by the turning of a mill stone to grind salt, ensuring the sea remains salty. Some say the wheel is turned by a sea witch, while others name the grinders as Fenia and Menia, two local giants.